WOYWW #343- The New Year Edition.

Hello folks, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, and we both want to wish everyone a peaceful, healthy, happy and successful New Year.
Sad news this week for all us Metalheads, with the death of the great Lemmy from Motorhead. The man had a voice that sounded as though it was raised on 60 Marlborough and a bottle of JD a day! The band urged fans to play Lemmy's music loud and "have a drink or few", saying: "Celebrate the life this lovely, wonderful man celebrated so vibrantly himself.
"He would want exactly that."
 Apparently, he only had his cancer diagnosis two days before he died, and I read that it was in his neck and brain.
 So I will indeed be having a JD and coke, or two, for the great man tonight.
Now, onto more cheerful things:
This awesome frame was a gift from our own super talented Debbie (Tattered Rocks).





There is so much detail in it, and just how glittery is that? Here's a close up:

Debbie, it's fabulous, we love it. Thank you so much.















Marg, (Silvercrafter) sent us this, a card mounted onto a canvas board. The detail is amazing, so many hours of work gone into this. Again, thank you Marg.







Youngest son Mikey bought me a Hobbycrafts gift card, so Monday saw a trip there. As you can see, a few bits and pieces-some card blanks, a couple of paper pads that were on sale, a nice silver and white dotty ribbon, a stamp saying ' Keep Calm and Craft On'- I can see that getting some use!. A date stamp, which was really cheap, only £3.50. Closer look at the paper packs here:

I like the 8x8 size, very useful, and the pack below only has a couple of really Christmassy papers, the others I can use all year. Love the owls (left) in the bottom right corner!

Still not a big fan of Hobbycrafts, they seem to be reducing the stuff they carry for stamping/papercrafting everytime I go in. They have loads of art materials, scrapbooking, knitting/sewing, beading and even cakecraft, but stamping etc seems to be getting edged out.It seems like they are trying to carry a bit from a lot of ranges, and it ends up a bit lacking, I felt. I think they could do with opening up some communication with stamp manufacturing companies, especially here in the UK, and get some more brands stocked.
 So that's me for now, I'll be around to visit later on, have a lovely Wednesday folks. Link up with Julia, over at The Stamping  Ground, and come play.

WOYWW #239- The New Year Edition

       Wishing a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful & Prosperous
                      New Year to you & your families.

Well, as Julia did a Christmas Day WOYWW, I’m assuming there will be a New Years Day one too. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and that none of you are suffering with all the flooding.
 First pic of today is not exactly on my desk, I had to show you one of  Beloved Hubbys Christmas presents for me this year. Pretty much every year he manages to come up with something awesome, and this year is no exception.

I had to balance them on top of the radiator- they will go on the wall in our bedroom above this radiator. He had two of our favourite Wedding photos turned into canvas prints! He turned them to Black & White first.
So, what has everyone been up to over the Christmas Holiday? I know we are lucky, we don’t go back to work until Thursday night, many of you will have been working over the holiday, or are already back at work. Despite the break, not a lot of crafting done. Quite a bit of tidying and cleaning though. The only thing I have done is make myself some stencils with my Silhouette and some Transparency sheets.
       My Silhouette machine- its one of the original Silhouette digital cutters, at least 10 years old now, but still working just fine.

   And the latest batch of stencils I’ve cut.
The cleaning  was a bit of a necessity by now, Hubby has been renovating what was my old craft room, to use for himself for doing computer repairs in. Being a bit of a tech geek, he gets lots brought to him, and the living room usually looks like PC Worlds spares department!  Anyhow, that involved much the same as when we did my room- new ceiling/plastered/painted/papered/laminate floor/new woodwork & varnishing.Along with a bunch of Ikea units, its now almost finished.The house is pre-1900’s, and the plaster/woodwork is in the main, the original, so well overdue for an overhaul. As you can see in the pics, around the top of the wall is a white band- this was common, as a picture hanging rail would generally go all around the walls just below this, and then wallpaper went below the rail, and the area above the rail & the ceiling both painted white.Though in those days, it would have been whitewash, not emulsion.

One change he has made, the door now opens the opposite way. You can see in the picture, the underneath of the stairs going up to the next level which leaves an area that’s not very user friendly. So he swapped the door to open against that now, and moved the light switch.

This is after the woodchip had been stripped off, and the old laminate removed.

Work in progress- plastered and painted, new doors being varnished.

 Hubby in mid-construction mode.

Now he’s moving his stuff in, and said that he probably has more storage than he really needs. I said I could lend him some stuff to store, lol, he said No, thank you. Actually, thats not exactly what he said, but you get the idea.

   Hubbys room almost finished, just the blind to hang, and his stuff to put away. The built in cupboard has had shelves put in,as in these old houses, storage is at a premium, and also holds the filing cabinet and server.
 And a lot of ‘stuff’ that doesn’t have another home.
 So thats me for another week, and indeed another year.
 Its amazing that this will be my third year of blogging- I know loads of you have been at it for way longer, but I really never realised how much a part of my life it would become, along with all my wonderful WOYWW friends. So, at midnight, I will have raised a glass to each and every one of you ( that’s one glass between you all, tempting though the idea might be ), here’s to the next year xx.

Happy New Year!!!!!

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you had a lovely New Years Eve, and that you have a Happy, Peaceful & Healthy New Year, with a little Prosperity thrown in for good measure. So here is my New Year card to everyone- I just wanted to play a little this morning. After all the Christmas cards and Wedding Stationery I am doing, it's nice to just create something, rather than duplicating.
 The background was sponged with Scattered Straw,Mustard Seed,Wild Honey,Dried Marigold,Worn Lipstick,Victorian Velvet,Barn Door, Fired Brick & Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks. I stencilled through some sequin waste  with Spiced Marmalade, Antique Burgundy and Cracked Sapphire Distress Inks.The numbers are stencils I cut with the Silhouette, again sponged through with the Oranges & Reds. Overstamped with a variety of Tim stamps, putting the clock on each one. The phrase that is spread across the panels is all one stamp, I just masked off each section with low tack tape before inking the portion I wanted, removed the tape then stamped. The base card was covered with a sheet from Tims pad 'Crowded Attic', and the panels are mounted onto acetate so they float on the front.
 I really like the sentiment which fully reads:

'Time is a companion that goes with us on the journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived.'

  I'm looking forward to continuing my journey through creativity with you all for the next year.